Tuesday, September 30, 2014

How to: Fix a random reboots on the HTC One M8

Some time ago I
described a method to format the /data partition on the HTC One (M7) - How to: Fix a corrupted DATA partition
on the HTC One. This method is suitable for more HTC devices (all
with EXT4 support) and with the mkfs.ext4 tool you can format
system and cache partitions as well. All you need to know is the proper /dev/block/mmcblk0pXY number of
the partition you want to format.

However,
formatting the partition always means that your data will be gone. On the HTC
One M8 I noticed a problem, most likely caused by the wp_mod.ko module (module
to disable system R/W protection). When the module is loaded too late
and anything ever gets changed before the module is loaded
the file-structure of the /data partition might (and probably
will) get corrupted. As a result your device will reboot each time you'll try
to make and change on the /system partition (even if mounted as RW). So removing,
copying, moving, re-naming or editing any file on a system partition will result with the
following message in the kernel
log (last_kmsg.txt):

Formatting the
/data partition is not the best idea for some and it's not needed in most
cases.

Your /data partition is now fixed and you should no longer experience random reboots problem on your device (assuming that the corrupted /data partition was the source of the problem). Keep in mind that the fsck.ext4 -fn command can be used to check other EXT4 partitions on any device that has EXT4 file-system structure. All you need to know is the partition name or block number.

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